Unknown Cargo

Media Artist Timo Wright and Art Educator Laura Porola, both young creative Finns, sat down in Helsinki and came up with an idea of having an exhibition without revealing the artists behind the art.

Why create expectations? Why tell half of the story before a visitor has even entered the space? Why unlock the mysteries beforehand? Why narrow down the amount and type of visitors? These questions Timo and Laura asked themselves.

So.

Why not create an empty space, where artists and citizens could meet each other without knowing anything about each other? Like a blind date? As an answer to all these questions, exhibition called Unknown Cargo was born.

Timo and Laura set a clear objective for Unknown Cargo. To bring lots of new people from all fields of life to experience art. Openness. Free Entry. No fear of being exposed to art gibberish. No sham. No image. Simply art.

To fulfill these features, Timo and Laura searched for a central area where to set up Unknown Cargo. So that anyone could just pop in. Finally Unknown Cargo found its home in the historical part of central Helsinki, in the urban shopping center Kluuvi.

Together with Absolut Timo and Laura have now set their exhibition to the ground level where a big window facing the most famous shopping street, Aleksanterinkatu, welcomes anyone to enjoy art. Accompanied with cocktails.

Absolut has a long legacy in forging close ties with art and artists. Who will be the next big thing? In the end it is these urban citizens in the street, who decide. Like in graffiti on a wall, the charm lies in the fact that one knows nothing about the artist. Who, why, when, how, what? These questions will be asked in Unknown Cargo - until the artists are revealed. But only in the end.

Together with Absolut, Caravan, a United Arab Emirate baset artist collective, presented an Absolut Art bar Installation at the 2014 ARt Dubai. The site-specific, large-scale art installation created by Caravan, named A Grain of Sand, was a unique bar and lounge on the Fort Island in the heart of the art fair.